Tablet

Handle; dagger shaped; semitranslucent, cream white with gray areas on one side; slight earth incrustations; decoration: incised lines. (End broken and cracked.)

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Historical period(s)
Anyang period, Late Shang dynasty, ca. 1250-ca. 1050 BCE
Medium
Jade (nephrite)
Dimensions
H x W x D: 18 × 2.3 × 0.8 cm (7 1/16 × 7/8 × 5/16 in)
Geography
China, probably Henan province, Anyang
Credit Line
Gift of Charles Lang Freer
Collection
Freer Gallery of Art Collection
Accession Number
F1915.234
On View Location
Sackler Gallery 24b: Anyang: China's Ancient City of Kings
Classification(s)
Ceremonial Object, Jade
Type

Ritual object: Tablet

Keywords
Anyang period (ca. 1300 - ca. 1050 BCE), China
Provenance

To 1915
Abel William Bahr (1877-1959), Shanghai, China, London, England, Montreal, Canada, New York, New York, and Ridgefield, Connecticut to 1915 [1]

From 1915 to 1919
Charles Lang Freer (1854-1919), purchased from Abel William Bahr in 1915 [2]

From 1920
The Freer Gallery of Art, gift of Charles Lang Freer in 1920 [3]

Notes:

[1] See Original Miscellaneous List, S.I. 761, pg. 168, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Abel William Bahr (1877-1959) was a collector and dealer born in Shanghai, China. After he left Shanghai in 1910, he lived, at various points in time, in London, Montreal, and Ridgefield, Connecticut. He established a gallery in New York City in 1920.

[2] See note 1.

[3] The original deed of Charles Lang Freer's gift was signed in 1906. The collection was received in 1920 upon the completion of the Freer Gallery.

Previous Owner(s) and Custodian(s)

Charles Lang Freer 1854-1919
Abel William Bahr (C.L. Freer source) 1877-1959

Description

Handle; dagger shaped; semitranslucent, cream white with gray areas on one side; slight earth incrustations; decoration: incised lines. (End broken and cracked.)

Acquired with a box, now lost.

Published References
  • J. Keith Wilson, Jingmin Zhang. Jades for Life and Death. .
Collection Area(s)
Chinese Art
Web Resources
Jades for Life and Death
Google Cultural Institute
CC0 - Creative Commons (CC0 1.0)

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